Tag Archives: Transformer

At the beginning of this year, Tegra 2 were the hottest SoCs on the planet. All Android geeks out there were eagerly waiting to get their hands on a Tegra 2 powered handset. Tegra 2 deserved all the attention it got since it was the first ever dual-core SoC to be used across any mobile device. This in by itself is no small feat.

Fast forward to year-end, and things are looking the same, except that this time we have Tegra 3 which is gathering all the limelight. The Tegra 3 is going to become the first ever quad-core SoC ever to be used in a consumer-oriented device. This consumer-oriented device is the Asus Transformer Prime, which Asus had announced a few weeks ago. The Transformer Prime is the successor to the original Transformer, which without a doubt has been one of the most popular Android tablets of the year.

When A-soos announced the Prime, it stated that the tablet will come with Android 3.2 Honeycomb but will get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update soon after. Today, Nvidia and Asus have joined hands to show us all future-Prime owners, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on the Transformer Prime.

Below is the video I am talking about :

Asus and Nvidia team managed to get Ice Cream Sandwich up and running on the Prime in only 3 days, and from the video it looks like they have done an incredible job. This is also the first time we get to see how Ice Cream Sandwich actually looks like on a tablet. The Prime looks super-smooth in the above video, and was easily able to playback a 1080p video and Riptide GP 2, which has been optimized for Tegra 3.

The only thing I did wish was that Nvidia and A-soos made the video a bit longer. By releasing such a short teaser, both the companies have only added fuel to all the peoples’ desire of buying the Prime.

The Transformer Prime is all set to go on sale in the United States this December for $499.

Asus has just unveiled the successor to the Transformer, the Transformer Prime. The Prime will be the first ever tablet in the world to feature Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core, technically ‘five cores’, processor. The Prime is one of the slimmest Android tablet around at only 8.3mm thick, and weighs only a mere 586gms.

The Prime wil also boast of a 10.1-inch Super-IPS+ LCD display, with 1280×800 resolution. Asus promises that the display will have a viewing angle of 178 degrees, and will also provide up to 600 bits of brightness when at max brightness. The display is protected by Corning’s Gorilla glass, and there is also an oleophobic coating so as to prevent fingerprints. Other key features of the Prime include 1GB of RAM, 32/64GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS with A-GPS, micro-HDMI port, and a bunch of sensors.

Even though its a tablet, Asus has installed an 8MP camera with F2.4 aperture at the back, with an LED flash. There is also a 1.3MP camera in the front for video-conferencing. The Prime is physically smaller and lighter than its predecessor, and yet manages to pack in bigger speakers. Asus quotes the battery life of the Transformer at a staggering 12 hours while continuously playing back 1080p videos, which increases to a whopping 18 hours when the keyboard dock is connected.

The Prime will ship with Android 3.2 Honeycomb on-board, and will get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update shortly after its launch via an OTA update. The 32GB version of the Prime will cost $499, while the 64GB version will cost $599. This makes the Prime $100 costlier than its predecessor, but it is also lighter, slimmer and much faster than the Transformer. The Asus Transformer Prime is expected to hit the shelves sometime next month in the U.S.

Asus has started rolling out a new software update for one of the most popular Honeycomb running tablet – the Transformer. The update is aimed at mainly fixing the bugs found in the current software of the Transformer, including the abnormal battery consumption issue. The update also introduces an application named ‘App Backup’, which allows users to backup their installed apps and games.

One handy feature of the app is that it allows you to restore the backup on another Asus tablet. Looks like Asus wants to make sure Transformer users are easily able to upgrade to the Transformer Prime. Below is the full change-log of the update-:

Performance Improvement:

Improve Wi-Fi connectivity

Fix 8.6.5.13 mobile dock abnormal battery consumption issue

App Updates:

Latest version of Google Books, Maps and Market

Asus Sync – Ability to turn on/off Asus Sync

Email: Supports .Zip download

MyNet: Improves Device Search

Browser: Improves Compatibility

MyCloud: now supports remote desktop within different network

Update Italian Input method

Supernote: Improves performance and bug fixed

Polaris Office: supports large file loading, improve compatibility

Next week, Asus will also announce its much anticipated successor to the Transformer, the Transformer Prime. The tablet will be powered by Nvidia’s quad-core SoC, dubbed Tegra 3.

Recently, some preliminary benchmarks of the Prime leaked on the Internet. The tablet blew its competition out of the water, by scoring more than 10k points in the AnTuTu benchmark.

Starting from today, Asus will start rolling out the Android 3.2 Honeycomb update for its most popular tablet until date the EeePad Transformer.

The Transformer is the most popular Android Honeycomb based tablet, even more popular than the Motorola XOOM. The reason behind its popularity is its IPS screen, keyboard dock, and the much affordable price compared to XOOM.

The Android 3.2 update will not bring any major changes to the tablet. It brings the usual stability and performance improvements, which is what Honeycomb needs right now. The update will also enable the microSD card slot on the Transformer, and will add a new zoom-to-fill screen option for older/incompatible apps.

Like the iPad, Android 3.2 offers an option to zoom into apps to fill the whole screen. Some of the apps may get pixelated due to this, but a partially usable app is better than a non-functional app. Other feature which Honeycomb v3.2 includes is the support for smaller screen size based tablets like 7-inches and 8.9-inches. Other notable feature is the support for Qualcomm based chipsets.

Asus has started rolling out the OTA update, and expects to complete in the next few weeks.

The iPad 2 has seen the highest sales, much higher than any single Android tablet since it launched. While there have been several tablets available in the past months, only a few have been selling well.

The Asus EEE Pad Transformer was launched a couple of months back, but has been in short supply. There have been supply shortages due to high demand. It’s also priced quite well, at $399, which makes it a budget Android tablet.

Today, Jerry Shen, CEO, Asus, stated that the company will be shipping 300,000 units of the Asus EEE Pad Transformer, which is much higher than the expected sales of most other Android tablets, except maybe the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which may see an initial bump in sales in its launch month.

Johnny Shih, Chairman, Asus, said that the demands for the EEE Pad Transformer remain strong even when other tablet suppliers have cut shipment goals.

The Asus EEE Pad Transformer is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1 GHz, and comes with 1 GB RAM. It has 16 GB internal storage and runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb, with an upgrade to Android 3.1 on the way. It also has a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel, IPS display. It comes with a keyboard dock as well, which converts it into a usable laptop.

The Asus Transformer is a pretty popular Android Honeycomb based tablet, thanks to its dock able keyboard. The tablet is out of stock at almost all major stores and online retailers.

When Google announced the Android 3.1 Honeycomb update, Asus stated that the Transformer will get the update sometime in early June. Now, for the impatient Transformers users, the Android 3.1 update has leaked on the Internet. Apparently, the leaked update is the final build!

Asus Transformer users, who flashed the update on their tablet, report an increase in performance, some bug fixes, and major improvement in the 3D performance of the tablet. The Android 3.1 update for the Transformer will also bring USB host capabilities, better HTML5 rendering, resizable widgets on the home screen and the task switcher is not limited to just five apps now.

The process to update the tablet to Android 3.1 is a pretty simple one. The required steps can be found here. The problem is that Asus has requested majority of forums to remove the leaked update. The update is still available in quite some websites, and a simple Google search will lead users to the required file.